Bobbing Along Issue 4. August 1989 50p (Hey!)
Yes, there was a 20% increase in the cover price which I fully expected to be punched over (but wasn't). The original price of 40p was stupid as it meant fiddling about with small change. Selling a fanzine was a quick 'walk by' transaction. The longer you took giving out change the more passing trade you missed. So the price rise benefitted consumers. No-one likes a queue, afterall.
The 1988/89 season ended with a collective shrug of the shoulders. Manager, Frank Burrows spent the entire closed season seemingly on the brink of leaving (hence the cover strapline). It was rumoured that he fell out with Chairman, Tony Clemo, over money. This is not true. Both men were in total agreement on the subject. There wasn't any.
The 1989/90 season saw City relegated. Frank Burrows and star striker, Jimmy Gilligan both moved on to Portsmouth after only a few weeks. Even with them, early season form was wretched.
Len Ashurst was appointed as manager in a blaze of self publicity (it made the South Wales Echo). Ashurst was roundly considered a spent force as a manager by everyone but Chairman, Tony Clemo, who announced the appointment as something of a coup to a press conference that audibly groaned at the news.
Ashurst hadn't managed in the Football League for 4 years after relegating Sunderland in 1985. He proclaimed, however, that he had the 'Midas touch' as if this purely imagined gift in itself would get promotion. He was wrong. Anyway, if he really knew his Greek mythology he would have known that the 'Midas touch' is a curse, as was Ashurst.
This could have been a classic edition of the magazine. But it is rather rambling in places and would have benefitted from clearer thinking in its writing and, dare I say it, stronger editing . Less is more, afterall.
This is all too clear in the article called 'Wales: A Suitable Case For Special Treatment?' This article contains a degree of effort and research that I can scarcely believe I undertook but it holds on to its 'point' by its finger nails. What was I aiming for? Impassioned amateurism or some level of professionalism? In the end, neither was achieved and I can't decide if this is good writing.
The cover illustration is from the film, 'The Ladykillers'. This continues the theme of fond nostalgia for British comedy of the 1950s and 1960s. Coincidentally, the period (from a 1989 perspective) in which City were last good.
If you want to read more Bobbing Along Issue 4 and read a detailed commentary of the life and times of Cardiff City, find Issue 4 here.
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